The chief of the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the vital broadly visited museums within the US, is taking time without work amid an investigation into his habits on a flight final month.
CBS Information reported late on Friday evening that James Rondeau, the president and director of the Artwork Institute of Chicago since 2016, had voluntarily stepped away from his publish whereas that investigation proceeded.
An Artwork Institute of Chicago spokesperson stated in a press release to ARTnews, “The Artwork Institute takes this very severely and has opened an unbiased investigation into the incident to assemble all out there data.” The spokesperson confirmed that Rondeau had voluntarily taken time without work in the course of the investigation.
In accordance with the CBS Information report, the investigation stemmed from an alleged incident that occurred on a flight from Chicago to Munich in April. Citing nameless sources, the report stated that police had been “known as to the aircraft following stories of a passenger stripping off his garments.” These sources instructed CBS Information that Rondeau was that very passenger, and that “the incident occurred after he drank alcohol and took prescription medicine.”
Rondeau has been on the Artwork Institute of Chicago since 1998, when he joined as an affiliate curator of up to date artwork. He turned chair of up to date artwork in 2004, and whereas main that division, he merged it with the establishment’s fashionable artwork division. The newly merged fashionable and modern artwork division acquired a $400 million artwork donation from collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson in 2015, in what stays the museum’s largest present ever. By that present, important works by Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, and extra entered the gathering.
Because the museum’s chief, Rondeau has continued luring essential items, together with a $75 million one from Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed final 12 months that will likely be used to construct new galleries for Nineteenth-century artwork, in addition to fashionable and modern artwork.
Additionally in 2024, the museum confronted controversy for the way in which it handled a pro-Palestine encampment on its grounds that was led by college students on the Faculty of the Artwork Institute of Chicago, a associated entity to the museum. Sixty-eight college students had been arrested after the school called the police. (The college has been the topic of behind-the-scenes upheaval surrounding Israel’s war in Gaza.) The arrests moved greater than 40 Artwork Institute of Chicago staff to write a letter to Rondeau, urging the museum to chop ties with any board members with monetary connections to Israel.
